Boston broke a 1-1 tie with a pair of seventh-inning runs to support another brilliant outing by starter Jon Lester in a 3-1 victory over the St Louis Cardinals on Monday that put the Red Sox on the brink of winning the World Series.
The victory gave the Red Sox a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series and a chance to clinch the Major League Baseball crown with a win at Fenway Park in Game 6 today.
A ground-rule double by catcher David Ross plated one run and a single by center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury knocked in another off St Louis starter and loser Adam Wainwright to swing the balance in the seventh.
Photo: AFP
Lester, who went 7-2/3 shutout innings in picking up the win in the series opener, went the same distance on Monday, yielding one run on four hits, striking out seven with no walks.
Closer Koji Uehara came on to finish, registering a four-out save.
For Lester, the win silenced the suggestion by a Cardinals minor leaguer after Game 1 that the Boston left-hander had cheated by using a foreign substance in his glove, backed by a photo he captured off the TV screen.
Photo: EPA
Lester, who explained that he coated his glove with rosin before games to counteract his heavy sweating so he could get a better grip on the baseball, continued to excel on the World Series stage.
He improved to 2-0 in this series with a 0.59 earned run average and in three career Fall Classic starts Lester now boasts a 3-0 record, giving up just one earned run over 21 innings.
“Jonny [Lester] is just a stud, we really rely on him,” his battery mate Ross said.
Lester returned the praise for Ross, who has been his catcher in recent starts.
“The biggest thing is me and Rossy have had a good rhythm,” Lester said. “We just stuck to our pattern. Fortunately for us, Rossy hit that big double. It seems like it’s a different guy every night that picks us up. That’s the way it’s been with us all year.”
Boston struck first in the pivotal Game 5, taking a 1-0 lead on back-to-back doubles in the opening inning, with Dustin Pedroia pulling a line-shot to left and red-hot David Ortiz rapping a sharp grounder over first base and into the right-field corner to score the run.
Ortiz finished three-for-four and is a remarkable 11-for-15 overall for the series. He was slow to gather himself after beating out a base hit in the eighth, but despite icing both his ankles after the game said he would be ready to go again in Game 6.
Adam Wainwright settled down after Boston’s one-two punch in the first by retiring the next eight batters, the first five of those by strikeout.
The Cardinals tied the game in the fourth inning on a home run to straightaway center by Matt Holliday, the first run given up in a World Series game by Lester spanning 16 career innings.
Carlos Beltran threatened to go back-to-back, but his drive to left-center was caught just before the wall by Jonny Gomes.
It remained tied until the Boston breakout in the seventh. Wainwright was charged with all three runs after matching Lester’s brilliance through six as he struck out 10 batters in his seven innings.
Lester gave way to Uehara with David Freese on second after a double down the right-field line.
Uehara, who on Sunday became the first Japanese-born pitcher ever to register a World Series save, did it again on Monday.
He struck out pinch-hitter Matt Adams to end the eighth and then retired the side in the ninth to send Boston home with a chance to end it today.
St Louis manager Mike Matheny said Boston used the same winning formula as before.
“He [Boston’s Lester] threw the ball extremely well,” Matheny said. “It came down to a big hit. They got the big hit when they needed it and we couldn’t put much together. He was the same pitcher that we saw last time. Couldn’t get much going. He kept us down.”
“You know, our guys have been backed up against the wall before and this is something that isn’t foreign to them,” he said. “They know what we have to do. We just play our game. If we go about it the right way, we’ll be right where we want to be.”
Jobe Bellingham on Tuesday admitted to having “anxieties” on following in brother Jude’s footsteps after joining Borussia Dortmund in the summer. Jobe Bellingham, 19, is two years younger than Jude Bellingham, who joined Real Madrid in 2023 after three years at Dortmund. A centerpiece of the England national team, Jude Bellingham has emerged as one of the best players in the world in recent seasons. The younger Jobe Bellingham joined Dortmund in June from Sunderland after their promotion to the English Premier League. He admitted he understood what the perception would be ahead of the move to Germany. “It’s something you do think about.
Before Tuesday’s 7-2 win at the Atlanta Braves, Milwaukee Brewers manager Pat Murphy suggested “most people couldn’t tell you five players on our team.” A look at the standings would indicate more Brewers players soon will be recognized by more fans. After all, it is difficult to overlook a team that not only continues to extend their lead in the National League Central, but also boasts the best record in the majors. “What we’re doing in here right now is special,” right-handed pitcher Freddy Peralta said after allowing only four hits and one run in five innings, while setting a career high with
A baseball team from New Taipei City won the US Pony Palomino Division World Series yesterday in Laredo, Texas, defeating the US West representative team from Azusa, California, 2-1. Ku-Pao Home Economics and Commercial High School earned the right to represent Taiwan in the Pony Palomino (17 to 18 age group) World Series after winning this year's Wang Chen-chih Cup, a competition named after Taiwanese-Japanese baseball legend Wang Chen-chih (王貞治), also known as Sadaharu Oh. In the championship game against Azusa, Ku-Pao's starting pitcher Luo Yu-yan (羅于晏) was erratic early, giving up two hits in the bottom of the first inning, followed
Taiwanese pitcher Teng Kai-wei took the mound in New York on Saturday as the starting pitcher for the San Francisco Giants in his MLB season debut against the New York Mets, pitching 3.1 innings and allowing five runs. The Taiwanese right-hander struggled early, giving up three runs in the bottom of the first inning, including a three-run homer to Mets slugger Pete Alonso — his 250th career home run. However, Teng was not fazed and soon found his footing, holding the Mets scoreless in the bottom of the second and third innings. Meanwhile, Mets starter Kodai Senga of Japan made a few errors
RSS